August 27, 2011

"The most important thing is to make sure their facilities aren't damaged, which would take a long time to repair. If saltwater gets into the underground cables and those cables are carrying electricity, there is a real chance of damage to those lines," [said Mayor Michael Bloomberg.] "There is a lot less chance of damage to the lines if those power cables are not carrying power."

No matter what happens, Bloomberg and Obama will be hailed as life-saving geniuses. The fact that NYC's public transportation system is shut down a half a day before the storm even hits is great nannying, but it's shit leadership.

What I have to wonder is, how did NYC ever survive before Magic Mike became mayor? I was there for Hurricanes Donna and Gloria, which were MUCH worse than Irene, and the subways ran, the power stayed on, and life went on. I really believe that the Irene hysteria and overreaction is related to global warming, not the fantasy of it as a phenomenon, but the mental state of those who are in its thrall. like Blumanthal and Christie.

The run-up to this storm has been the biggest superhyperoverreaction I've ever seen. Up here in Massachusetts, we have thousands of National Guard troops at the ready. I hope they brought a few decks of cards or a travel Scrabble game or something.

The whole town is closed down. Everything is closed because people can't get home with the trains and buses closed. It's raining, does it all the time. The storm won't hit for over twelve hours but Cuomo, Bloomberg, Walder have shut the town down. For the first time ever. They've called out the National Guard, plan to cut electricity. Funny, no one I know is evacuating even in Rockaway. Irene will be nothing compared to the inconvenience these guys caused and you have to include Christie who closed the Jersey beaches with nary a big wave in sight and the sun shining.

This constant breathless over reaction to practically anything and especially to the natural world (storms, earthquakes) only makes people less and less willing to take their hysterical warnings seriously.

One day there WILL be a serious event and no one will pay any attention until it is too late.

Why is everyone acting like the storm is already over and nothing happened? It isn't even going to hit New York for many hours. It's legitimate to say that the "authorities" overreacted; it's a bit premature to say that everything is fine at this point.

"Yes. Katrina is a prime example of the hysterical breathless over reaction on the part of the media."

Absolutely. But it also destroyed a lot of people's lives and property and caused financial devastation. Again, it's legitimate to criticize fantasy but it's not legitimate to pretend that nothing bad happened.

The Outer Banks damage was no where near "horrific". Typical sand movement that one would expect from any low grade hurricane or winter storm. The whole OBX is a sand bar, they move and change shape literally every day. There are some "vulnerable" brackish areas behind the main bars that can be totally drained (or created) by a big storm, but it would take a lot more than Irene to do it.

Just goy our first (and probably last) taste of Irene here in central NC. The winds had been up all day, but we hadn't gotten any moisture at all until a little rain-shower just now. Amazing the difference a couple hundred miles makes.

In more important news than Yankees facing a big tropical storm, Al-Qaeda’s No. 2 leader, Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, has been killed in Pakistan.

Go Obama! Like Nixon going to China...only he could get the ACLU, the Progressive Jews of the media, the Black Caucus, and the Euroweenies to all shut up about GITMO, the soldier casualties the Bush-haters pretended to weep over, and of course the "extrajudicial assassination of innocent until proven guilty by a civilian jury - Islamoids.They can't even bring themselves to cry over terrorist wives, friends, and 'little brown babies' Obama wastes to get the Islamoid reverted to room temperature!!

Oh, and NY and New England will pay big time, but from lack of their shallow soil and streams constricted in valleys compared to the South..and their overgrown trees they can't bear to cut down toppling in the mud.

The politicians didn't shut New York down on 9/11 or in a blackout. A terrorist attack and a power failure did. What pray tell has happened today to shut New York down. Let me guess, absolutely nothing.

To put things in perspective let's compare what happened on 9/11 with today. True on both days the subways didn't run. But on 9/11 the entire downtown are was evacuated on foot. Thousands of people walking out of the financial district on foot and over the bridges. Police and police trainees guarded just about every intersection so that vehicles could move north. You couldn't walk within blocks of a police station which were cordoned off. At every hospital, St Vincent's, NYU, Beth Israel to name a few, scores of doctors and nurses stood on the sidewalk outside emergency rooms to treat casualties. Anyone seen anything like that in New York today?

Whether it'll be dangerous tomorrow isn't the issue. Mass Transit is shut down NOW. That's the failure in leadership. Anybody else notice that nobody's talking about it being a "100 year storm" or a "50 year storm" any more? That's because when it's all said and done, it'll turn out that NYC has weathered far worse without ever shutting down anything.

I've weathered hurricanes up close at least a half-dozen times. In Central MA, on Cape Cod, and in NC. I know what they can do, but I also know what happens when they dissipate. Irene is dissipating as we speak. Doesn't mean she won't pick up more energy later, but for now she's a dwindling menace. NYC remains paralyzed nonetheless.

"Whether it'll be dangerous tomorrow isn't the issue. Mass Transit is shut down NOW. That's the failure in leadership. "

Do you people think that the New York City Transit System can be shut down by flipping a switch? It actually takes a long time to get every bus the whole way through its route and every train on every line the whole way through its run.

Palladian, it could be a dangerous storm that requires a shutdown, but I doubt it. It's certainly been a massive waste of productivity to shut Mass Transit down for a day. Was it worth it? We'll see.I'm guessing that NYC has dealt with 75 mph winds and multiple inches of rain per hour many times in it's long history. The only things different about this time is Bloomberg and the pre-emptive shutdown.

And I hate to sound like a typical New Yorker, but the shit would hit the fan for ALL of you if something major happened to New York (as it did on 9/11/2001). There's a reason for extra caution. Again, I'm not saying that Bloomberg isn't a complete asshole (he is), nor am I saying that people are perhaps overreacting (remains to be seen). But IRENE HASN'T ACTUALLY HIT THE NEW YORK AREA YET. Save your dismissals for tomorrow.

A quick walk around the east side of Manhattan reveals that the Irish bars, Chinese restaurants, and Korean grocers are all open. These are the essentials of urban living and I'm confident that we will survive.

Lincolntf, the big concern is the possibility of flooding (especially of the subway system) from a storm surge. The southern Manhattan flood walls could easily be topped by a surge, especially since it may happen at high tide tomorrow morning at 8. I don't begrudge the decision to shut down the system at all.

I'm not dismissing Irene, I'm describing her accurately. A minor hurricane hundreds of miles away from a pathologically self-obsessed City filled with news anchors pretending that they're in mortal peril.

I've got mixed feelings about the overreaction, overhype. The second I begin to think yes, it's been overhyped, some wind comes up that makes me wonder if I need to go spend the night somewhere else. Looking at the coverage from North Carolina, no it does not seem to be the mega storm hitting the east coast that Max Mayfield had such nightmares about. It's not over yet. As far as NYC, I think I will remain out of that one for the time being. I will say that I think weather.com truly tried to scare everyone, whether to get eyeballs for advertisers, I'm not sure. I've heard it's worse on their tv station, but I don't have cable. They even hype the diminishing predictions. They just can't say "not as bad as we thought." On the other hand, people in Va have been killed and there has been substantial damage and it will continue as the ground is saturated, will only get worse and even 50 mph winds can bring down trees in such conditions.

The bloggers at the Post weather blog do note that no one complains about hurricanes like northeasterners (of which I am not one), so that explains a lot.

But Lincoln, when he "threw in the towel" as you say was precisely when he should have, to evacuate the zones he wanted to. As someone else said, you can't do that at the last minute. I guess I would say you can question his decision but not the timing of it. But I might be wrong, that's just my educated guess.

That makes no sense to me. Shut down the City to prevent the City from being shut down by the storm? Beyond meteorology there is a political angle and a social angle to the shutdown, and that's what interests me. I see the storm on radar, read the wind readings, etc. and I see a big storm hitting NYC. No catastrophe, no disaster. I also see news and Govt agencies doing their best to pretend that the strength of Irene isn't cratering before it hits "pay dirt" in NYC. That's where the real facetime lies, and that's what they all want.

(Seriously, I've lived through hurricanes, hauled boats out of the sand, chainsawed limbs out of roofs, etc., so I do respect what they can do, but this has all the earmarks of a fizzler.)

Our mayor loves nothing more than calling a press conference and using the word "must." It's his favorite word. We "must" shut down the subway (first time to my knowledge). You "must" evacuate. you "must" cut down on salt.

DaveW wrote: "At least down here we know when to get our panties in a wad over one of these events - and that is definitely not for anything less than a Cat 3."

That's because us more hurricane-prone types have *experience* dealing with these storms. We build our buildings expecting them, we have an idea of what to shop for, emergency services have detailed plans and equipment, we know we shouldn't drive through deep water on the roads (OK, every year a number of people learn this lesson), and so on. Irene is bad because it's heading toward an area where no-one has experience with this kind of storm.

You know how some school districts in the southern states will cancel school for under 2" of snow? And how people in Rochester, which has three snow plows and sixteen tons of sand for every inhabitant (*) giggle and point at our ineptitude? Not fair of them, not fair of you.

Well, here outside of Philadelphia (about 60 miles inland from Atlantic City), we've had about 2 inches of rain, with the storm still about 8 hours away - with 8 to 10 more expected.

The problem here is that the ground is thoroughly saturated from 13 inches of rain in August. Widespread flooding is expected, and some place are already starting to flood. I don't think its going to be the end of the world, but I did spend the past two days preparing for flooding.

I'm outside of DC in MD, and we've had nothing but light rain so far. But lucky so far is not the same thing as nothing. All it takes is one tree blown into your house and nothing becomes disaster instantaneously.

Even here we're getting this odd liberal fascination with NYC. I'm trying to find whether any rain bands are coming and every one of the news channels is carrying a Bloomberg press conference. WTF?

I'm just glad none of you naysayers are actually public decision makers. You're clueless.

And I'm kind of surprised that no one drew the "obvious" conclusion that Obama is shutting down NY so his espionage teams can go in and bug the entire Wall Street district. Surprised and disappointed. I've come to expect so much more from you guys.

Idiots with an idiotic trust in the idiots that they idiotically elect. That's NYC in a nutshell. From shitbag Rangel to shit-for-brains Bloomberg. The City That Never Sleeps shuts down for a freaking rainstorm.

Shit for brains is right. The Staten Island Ferry ran across the Upper Bay for ten, count em ten, hours after buses running up and down Fifth Avenue through the rock solid center of the City in absolutely no danger of flooding under any scenario were pulled off the streets. Ya think those buses could have run all afternoon? You bet they could have, on each and every route they run on. Incidentally, because of terrorist concerns, the subways were shutdown immediately on 9/11. At best it takes only enough time to get the trains actually in service, today on the reduced Saturday schedule, back to the yards. This has been an exercise of egotism.

Obama is shutting down NY so his espionage teams can go in and bug the entire Wall Street districtWhy would he? Half of Goldman is officially on the payroll at Treasury, the other half finances the DNC.

Can we send Bloomberg to New Orleans for a few years, or would that precipitate the Apocalypse?

Another Bloomberg press conference, stay away from windows. Anything else asshole. Oh yes, say it in Spanish. So get this, he can give us his instructions to what? not take our kayaks out. No shit, that's what he says, don't take your kayak out. Got that. The police commissioner looks like he's gonna puke.

Hey mutaman I'm a short walk from Bloomberg's press conference. If he didn't shut the town down I'd have better things to do, but this nonsense pisses me off. There will be minor flooding here, that's about all. I can tell you where it will be, the East River Drive, Brooklyn shoreline, Rockaway Beach. No one will be washed away, could be a localized power failure or two. But shut the City down for there days? Even in Nebraska you can see the stupidity of it. Why do you wonder in Nebraska, if it doesn't concern you anyway.

Palladian, perhaps you will be more in the eye than we are and will be in DC, but honestly we have winter days and nights that are windier than this. Yes, it's been raining all day here, but so far we have maybe a little more than an inch. One day in March it rained more in two hours than it has all day here. But our star local broadcasters didn't see fit to stay with us through that night.

I guess what galls me most is that no one will ever say, "wasn't what we thought." (If it turns out that way.) And really, they should.

He did not have to shut down the subway. Now he wants to shut the electricity to Lower Manhattan because of the chance...THE FUCKING CHANCE....that the water will mess up the Con Edsion lines.

Do you realize how much money the people who have businesses will losed if they do that. all of the food in the restaruants and bodegas and pizza joints and bars. Lots of buildings down there were converted from offices to condos. All those people will lose all of their food. No air conditioning. Old people and pets will suffer and who knows maybe die.

I still don't really want to weigh in on NYC, but why is no one questioning the advice the mayor is listening to? He is not making these decisions by himself. There are people telling him what to do. Who are those people?

Anyway, perhaps it's better to wait.

For the news, around here mid Atlantic. We need to juxtapose their banal chatter we are enduring now with the "STORM OF THE CENTURY" advertising they did pre-storm.

As much as Guiliani liked to channel Mussolini he never would have pulled this shit. This is beyond moronic. This is the nanny state gone viral. I hope Bloomberg gets impeached when this turns out be nothing more than a big rain storm.

Booths in Times Square? Wives working there? What syphillitic fuck would think like that? Don't tell me, it's of absolutely no consequence, not worth a piece of dog shit on the curb. Haven't the time or interest to respond to psychotics.

Oh cry me a river, Palladian. The networks spend all week screaming and crying about NYC, but nobody's supposed to comment on NYC? By the way, I'm in North Carolina, not Nebraska. You know, NC, where Irene actually did do damage.I expect that NYC will now shut down for every rain storm until Bloomberg's term is over. Let those proles know that it's the Government, not the weather, that controls who comes and goes in NYC.

A minor hurricane hundreds of miles away from a pathologically self-obsessed City filled with news anchors pretending that they're in mortal peril.

Once again. The boy who cried wolf. Or a better visual from earlier in the thread. Muppets running around waving their arms in the air.

This is NOT to say that there couldn't have been damage and danger. It is just that the media and some government lackeys are hysterical. Pretty soon people ignore the hysterics and then a REAL disaster strikes.

If nothing else maybe it will wake some people up to the idea that they should be prepared AND that they can't trust the government to save their butts.

Could there be damage? Of course. Is it the end of the fucking world as we know it. Hardly.